For the first time since the IRL IndyCar Series absorbed Champ Car this year, drivers from the defunct series have home-track advantage, for this weekend's race at Edmonton City Centre Airport. IndyCar makes its debut Saturday at the Alberta course, a circuit visited three times by Champ Car.

Motor racing boss Max Mosley won an invasion of privacy suit Thursday against a tabloid newspaper that claimed he took part in a Nazi orgy. High Court judge David Eady ruled the News of the World must pay Mosley $120,000 in damages, plus legal costs of an estimated $1.7 million, for the story claiming Mosley participated in a sadomasochistic sex romp with a Third Reich theme.

Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone tried to distance his organization from Max Mosley on Friday and a growing list of motor sports figures pushed for the FIA president to step down amid a sex scandal.

Some Formula One drivers are reluctant to speak out about safety concerns for fear of being considered soft, Red Bull's David Coulthard said this week. The Scot, who gave his team's new RB4 car its test debut at a damp Jerez, Spain, circuit, has been outspoken in warning about the danger of driving in wet conditions without traction control.

Fernando Alonso won the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, beating Lewis Hamilton and closing to within three points of his McLaren teammate at the top of the drivers' standings. With four races left, Hamilton leads the standings with 92 points, while Alonso has 89. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen is third with 74.

Lewis Hamilton believes McLaren has a mental edge over Ferrari in the Formula One world championship despite the discovery of new evidence in the spy scandal. The International Automobile Federation has called a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council on Sept. 13, which could lead to a two-year ban for McLaren from F1 for obtaining confidential information from Ferrari.

BAR-Honda will not appeal its two-race ban by Formula One's governing body, which ruled Jenson Button's car ran underweight in last month's San Marino Grand Prix. "The conclusion is that nothing can be done to enable the team to race this weekend," BAR-Honda said Friday.